( what on earth is going on within the NDP ? is mulcair really leaving or is he planning a comeback ? its truly bizarre that there is not a single confirmed candidate for this race . although one Ontario ndp mpp though about running that backed away and Peter Julian is thinking about it but not one actual leadership campaign has been formed , don martin is right its truly unheard of in politics )

Don Martin: An NDP leadership race without runners

CTV Power Play Host Don Martin
Don Martin, Power Play Host

@DonMartinCTV
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Published Thursday, September 8, 2016 5:50PM EDT

The NDP leadership race and my backyard have something in common during these late summer days.

Listen and all you hear are crickets.

In four decades of covering politics, I have never seen any party leadership fail to attract a single candidate five months after a vacancy was declared.

Mulcair
But a race without runners is the current Dipper dilemma.

Never mind the absence of interest in coughing up the $30,000 entry fee. There’s not even a whisper of preliminary fundraising; no exploratory canvassing for member support; nobody trying to pull a Kellie Leitch by attracting attention with controversial ideas.

In fact, the only name generating any buzz to replace Tom Mulcair is …. Tom Mulcair.

A Facebook site dedicated to the bizarre notion of luring the back-stabbed leader into the search for his replacement is getting modest online traction.

Dream on, disgruntled Dippers.

But this draft-the-dumped-guy desperation does underline the sad state of a party which, one year ago today, had a transition team in place to smooth the path into an NDP government with its leader on top of the polls.

Now it’s drifting ever lower into third place with its missing-in-action leader down to a single-digit voter-preference.

Mulcair likely doesn’t fret that much. Why give up a summer he spent building the grandkids a treehouse to rally NDP members who voted down his leadership last April?

Frankly, he might well consider quitting before the House returns and let his party of turncoats twist in the parliamentary wind without its ace performer in the front row.

Of course, the lack of leadership entry enthusiasm is understandable.

The NDP finds itself between a socialist screed called the Leap Manifesto, which calls for an end to pipelines and the private sector oilpatch among other things, and a Liberal government mowing its political grass toward the middle of the spectrum.

Without a force of leadership personality to elbow space beyond the shrinking base, it sets up a potentially deadly squeeze play for the next seven years.

That explains the crickets in the NDP leadership race – which is music to Justin Trudeau’s ears.

NDP MP Peter Julian will step aside as his party's House leader to consider a possible leadership bid.

NDP MP Peter Julian is stepping down from his job as the party's House leader to focus on a potential bid to succeed Tom Mulcair.

Julian said he will have discussions with people across the country before deciding if he will formally enter the race.

"I'm inspired by New Democrats, I'm inspired by Canadians, and I'm looking forward to those conversations that will be taking place in the next period," he said.

Party members rejected Mulcair's leadership at a convention in Edmonton in April, voting 52 per cent to 48 in favour of a leadership review. The caucus agreed to keep him on as caretaker leader until a replacement is chosen next fall.

So far, no one has officially declared a run for the leadership. Meanwhile, nine candidates have declared their intention to seek the Conservative leadership, with several more sending signals they will join the race.

But Mulcair said there is much enthusiasm within the party.

"It's an exciting time for us in the NDP as we go through this process," he said.

The next NDP leader's primary role will be to rebuild the party after last year's crushing electoral defeat.

The NDP has struggled with sagging support and flagging fundraising since the Liberal government was elected a year ago.

Slumping support

Polls in September put the NDP's support at between 9 and 12 per cent.

Julian, who was first elected in 2004 to represent the British Columbia riding of Burnaby–New Westminster, is bilingual and has served as the party's critic for portfolios that include energy, natural resources and finance.​

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared on a series of morning talk shows to tout his government's record the first year in office, Julian said the Liberals have let people down.

"I think there are a lot of Canadians that are disappointed in how the first year has gone," he said. "There was a commitment to real change and we haven't seen that real change. So what I'll be doing over the next little while is talking with Canadians and getting my inspiration from them and from New Democrats about the next steps to take for our country."

B.C. MP Murray Rankin will take over the post of NDP House leader. That role comes with an annual salary bump of $16,800

( there was 1 candidate until Dinovo dropped out due to health reasons )

Cheri DiNovo drops NDP leadership bid

The MPP for Parkdale-High Park has announced her withdrawal due to health reasons saying she suffered two small strokes recently.

NDP's Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo was a prominent marcher along Trans Pride March in Toronto on July 1. (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

By Robin Levinson KingStaff Reporter

Tues., Aug. 2, 2016

Cheri DiNovo is dropping out of the NDP leadership race because of problems with her health.

The local MPP for Parkdale-High Park had thrown her hat in the ring to lead the federal NDP last June, positioning herself as the candidate most able to return to the party to its socialist roots.

But after suffering two mini strokes, known as transient ischemic attack, DiNovo says she must focus all her attention on getting better.

“My staff and family have been amazing through this experience and it is in consultation with them – to whom I owe so much – that I have to announce I’m withdrawing from the leadership race. For at least the next month or so my focus will be on my health, so that I’ll be able to return to Queen’s Park in the fall,” she wrote on Facebook.

DiNovo raised eyebrows in June when she announced her bid to replace Tom Mulcair because she didn’t have the $30,000 deposit required of federal NDP leadership candidates.

Instead, she declared herself an “unofficial” candidate for the NDP leadership, and said she would “fight for principles rather than for a position.”

DiNovo, a United Church minister and advocate for LGBTQ rights, said she’s confident another candidate will step forward who puts principles and values at the forefront of their campaign.

“I am so sorry that it cannot be me, but this was never about me anyway,” DiNovo said in her statement Tuesday. “It is about the principles and values of the brave souls who penned the Regina Manifesto and their legacy that so many still share.”

Candidates have till July 3, 2017 to register;
As such I don't expect any major announcements till the new year.

The NDP is facing an interesting choice;
Trend further left and ultimately go back to being that 3rd / 4th party in Parliament or opt for someone more electable.

well the vote isn't until later in 2017 , it still seems odd no one high profile has came out and said they wanted to run .

if no one high profile runs for the job , they risk having the ndp taken over by fringe activists or who knows who might end up with the top job ? someone unheard of to most Canadians could end up becoming ndp leader

( I still feel like some in the ndp are plotting for a way to keep mulcair , it seems bizarre that mp's voted him the parliamentarian of the year ? even though he was voted out by his own party and generated virtually no press during the past year on any significant issues , perhaps he gets more attention in parliament than he gets elsewhere )

Tom Mulcair: The 2016 Parliamentarian of the Year

After a tough election loss and a tougher party convention, Tom Mulcair got right back to work in the House of Commons

On Nov. 15, Maclean’s celebrated the best of Ottawa with the ninth edition of our Parliamentarians of the Year awards, which were handed out based on the results of a secret-ballot survey of their peers in the House of Commons. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair won the top honour for 2016. View the full list of award winners.

It would be hard to overstate how bruising last spring was for Tom Mulcair. After leading the NDP to a deeply disappointing third-place finish in the 2015 federal election, he faced a vote on his leadership at the party’s April convention in Edmonton. Mulcair campaigned hard to keep his job, but convention delegates rejected him anyway. This proud, combative career politician would be relegated to serving as interim leader until his successor is chosen in the fall of 2017.

On his first day back in the House of Commons, just two days after the vote in Edmonton, Mulcair rose in question period. Before he could begin to speak, MPs in his own caucus stood to applaud, and were quickly joined by Conservatives to his right and Liberals across the aisle. It was a sign of respect from MPs for one of their own, a question period specialist, whose grilling of former prime minister Stephen Harper on the Mike Duffy affair in 2013 will long make every highlight reel of QP sparring.

So how did Mulcair thank his House colleagues for that spontaneous tribute while his Edmonton humbling was still stinging? “Mr. Speaker,” he began as the cheering died down, “after years of ethically challenged Conservative rule, the Liberals promised to do things differently . . . ” Shouts of protest, then a wave of incredulous laughter, interrupted him. Mulcair was succinctly slamming both rival parties seconds after they put partisanship aside to honour him. He laughed, too. But then he went on with a tough question on ministerial fundraising activities.

Far from spoiling the moment, this quintessential Mulcair response made it. What MPs admire most about his QP performances—that intense interrogatory beam shone on the issue of the hour—hadn’t been dimmed by the rebuke his own party’s delegates had meted out. Nor was he softened by a bit of clapping. And perhaps that’s one reason MPs also voted Mulcair the overall best of their number in this year’s Maclean’s Parliamentarians of the Year survey: He kept his QP form despite everything.

Asked what advice he offers rookie MPs, Mulcair says he tells them to think of their job in three parts: riding, party and Parliament. “The most visible part is the Parliament, but the work always involves the other two, especially the riding, because, as the old saying goes, all politics is local,” he says. Constituency work requires loyal, local staffers who keep an ear to the ground while the MP is in Ottawa. Listening matters in the House, too: Mulcair advises MPs to pay close attention to the responses around them when they are engaged in QP exchanges. Often, he says, the reaction of MPs nearby signals how to calibrate a follow-up question.

First elected to Quebec’s National Assembly in 1994 as a Liberal, Mulcair jumped to the NDP and federal politics, lured by the late Jack Layton’s leadership, and won a Montreal by-election in 2007. After Layton’s death from cancer in 2011, Mulcair won the NDP’s leadership race. He says debate in Quebec’s legislature can be ferocious, but incessant heckling is worse in the federal House.

He revels in it anyway. Mulcair says allowing yourself to get jaded is a luxury a good MP won’t indulge. Even after all these years, he is present for an unusually high percentage of House votes. When the NDP needs an MP to step up on short notice for committee duty—seen by many as a thankless task—Mulcair is ready. “The whip’s ofﬁce knows it doesn’t take much to get me down there,” he says. “I’m only a phone call away and I really love it.”

And Mulcair is not one of those who reflexively dismisses the House and its committees as mostly theatre. Out of all the noise and partisan tactics, he says voters surprisingly often glean something true. “Through that constant cut and thrust, a lot makes it out to the public,” he says. “My best compliment during the Duffy exchanges with Harper was when someone would stop me on the street and say, ‘Hey, Mr. Mulcair, you finally asked the question that I wanted to ask.’”

The race to find a leader by next October is empty so far. B.C. MP Peter Julian recently stepped down as House leader to consider his own candidacy, but hasn’t announced a decision yet.

An NDP insider said Angus has notified party leadership he’s planning to step out of his position as caucus chair, probably before the holidays. An announcement is likely to come soon after that.

“I think he’s a very likeable politician and human being, which is a huge asset,” said former party director Robin Sears, of Earnscliffe Strategy Group. “I think his credibility, especially on First Nations issues, is unimpeachable.”

Angus is a champion for indigenous rights issues and has worked closely with activists such as Cindy Blackstock, who is fighting the government on the discrimination of indigenous kids at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

His story — that of a “socialist punk rocker with a big heart,” said a party insider — offers some contrast to Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau.

An author of seven books, Angus has worked as a journalist, a roofer and a dishwasher. He and his wife, Brit Griffin, owned and ran a magazine in the north and a homeless shelter in Toronto before he was elected MP in 2004 for a Northern Ontario riding, which includes Attawapiskat, a First Nation for which he’s been a vocal advocate.

Elected caucus chair in January, Angus has the ear of his colleagues, although his style of leadership isn’t always without friction, one insider said. “He’s a very strong-willed individual,” they said, and will butt heads with others if he thinks it’s “the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile, Angus is the lead singer for punk band Grievous Angels and rocked out with ex-MP Andrew Cash in another band, L’étranger.

“It wasn’t very long after (the 2011 election) that Jack Layton died and Charlie showed incredible leadership throughout that whole period,” said Cash. “For our party right now we do need a leader who’s got that kind of on-the-ground credibility. … He brings that sense of life experience to the table.”

“Charlie, I think, is a top contender,” said Sally Housser, a senior consultant with Navigator and NDP alumnus.

“In terms of the NDP needing to really get back to a working-class, more traditional base, Charlie’s able to do that kind of populism and has an ability to speak to people in every segment of society, from downtown Toronto to northern Saskatchewan and everything in between.”

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A source in the Alberta NDP said his candidacy would be a positive signal for the party and he’s seen as someone who would take the time to “hear out” the concerns of people in that province.

Angus’s appeal to traditional NDP values should play well among blue-collar folks, Sears said. “I think he’s probably less of a smart alecky university type than some who would offer themselves. … I think he has authenticity.”

Though he’s not as fluently bilingual as some of his colleagues, it’s thought that Angus has a good base in French. There’d still be work to do to be competitive in a French-language debate.

Observers in NDP circles mention MPs Niki Ashton and Guy Caron as possible competitors, along with Ontario deputy NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, a popular figure in and around Toronto.

Party director Robert Fox said last week he expects most candidates to jump in after the holidays. A first leadership debate is being organized for March.

The 54-year-old northern Ontario MP, who also serves as his party's indigenous affairs critic, is mulling his options as New Democrats look to replace Tom Mulcair as leader in October 2017.

Angus, first elected in 2004, is an outspoken advocate for indigenous communities, including Attawapiskat First Nation — a reserve in his riding that garnered international headlines last spring for a series of youth suicides.

'I’m very honoured,' Angus says in response to people urging him to run. It’s early days, though, with no candidates declared and a lack of consensus among Canadians.

'I’m getting lots of positive calls from across the country, and I’m very honoured,' said NDP MP Charlie Angus after being informed of the survey results. The Hill Times photograph by Chelsea Nash

By TIM NAUMETZ

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016 12:00 AM

Northern Ontario New Democrat MP Charlie Angus has not yet declared an intention to run for the NDP leadership, but a new poll suggests the onetime folk singer and community activist has a slight edge on the only member of the party’s caucus who has confirmed consideration of a run, British Columbia MP Peter Julian.

Findings from a Forum Research poll listing five prominent NDP MPs, some of whom ran against Tom Mulcair when he won the party helm in 2012, also indicate two MPs, both of whom have said they won’t be running, happen to be a hair ahead of the other possible candidates in national elector preference and substantially ahead in their home provinces.

One NDP MP, though, cautioned that it’s too early to read the significance of poll results. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they preferred someone other than the five potential candidates listed, or didn’t know their preference for permanent leader of the party. The race has no declared candidates, though Mr. Julian stepped down from his House leader job last month to explore a bid.

Among New Democrat supporters polled, Mr. Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) led, with 10 per cent of respondents who cited the NDP as their current vote preference saying Mr. Angus would make the best permanent leader of the party, followed closely by Quebec MP Alexandre Boulerice, who was favoured by nine per cent of the respondents. These results have a margin of error of plus or minus 7.5 per cent.

“Well, I’m getting lots of positive calls from across the country, and I’m very honoured,” Mr. Angus said after being informed of the survey results.

“The issue of this race is about the renewal of our party, it’s where we’re going. And, you know, to even be mentioned in speculation, yeah, I’m honoured and I’m going to be playing my part in this, the road ahead, where do we go as a party?” he said.

“Whether I’m as a candidate or working on the campaign still remains to be seen, but this is a huge issue. It’s also a very exciting time for our party,” Mr. Angus said. “Right now, I’m really occupied with the issues on child equity in First Nations, but I’m honoured.”

The NDP leadership voting is scheduled to take place over a series of ballots beginning in September 2017, with a new permanent leader to be selected by Oct. 29. The race was sparked when Mr. Mulcair (Outremont, Que.), the current leader, lost a leadership review at a party convention in April.

As with polls sounding preferences in the early stages of the federal Conservative Party leadership contest now underway, a significant majority of respondents to the Forum survey, 74 per cent, either preferred none of the five MPs listed as best choice for a new permanent leader of the NDP (24 per cent) or did not know which person to support (50 per cent).

Nationally, the five prominent New Democrats were virtually neck and neck, with Mr. Boulerice (Rosemont-La Petite Patrie, Que.), who has ruled out a leadership run, the favourite for seven per cent of all respondents across the country and first pick for 26 per cent of Quebec respondents.

B.C. MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) was favoured as the best choice to lead the party by six per cent of respondents nationally and 13 per cent of B.C. respondents. He has also said he’s decided not to run. Mr. Cullen placed third in the 2012 contest.

Mr. Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, B.C.) was selected as best choice for two per cent of respondents to the Forum poll nationally and by four per cent of B.C. respondents.

Manitoba MP Niki Ashton (Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, Man.), the only woman to contest the party’s leadership in 2012 and on the Forum list of potential candidates, was the choice for five per cent of the respondents nationally and by nine per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Rounding out the five MPs listed, Mr. Angus tied Ms. Ashton, with five per cent support nationally.

In Ontario, Mr. Angus was favoured by nine per cent of respondents, compared to six per cent for Mr. Cullen, three per cent for Ms. Ashton and two per cent each for Mr. Boulerice and Mr. Julian.

Among NDP supporters, Mr. Cullen, first elected to the Commons in 2004, was favoured by six per cent of the respondents, as was Ms. Ashton. Four per cent of respondents who said they supported the NDP selected Mr. Julian, also first elected in 2004, as best choice for leader.

The Forum Research interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,474 voting-age Canadians, conducted Nov. 9 and 10, has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent 19 times out of 20. The margin of error is larger, plus or minus 7.5 per cent, for the sample of 169 respondents who said NDP is their current vote preference.

For the larger provinces where more electors were sampled, however, the margin of error is smaller: 4.2 per cent in Ontario, 6.7 per cent in B.C. and 5.4 per cent in Quebec.

Quebec MP Guy Caron (Rimouski Neigette-Témiscouata-Les Basques, Que.) said it’s too early to read the significance of poll results, with “name recognition” the main criterion for elector choice.

“I expect the race to pick up maybe in January or February, eight or nine months before the vote, which seems to be the same timeline for the last leadership race,” Mr. Caron said.

“At this point any poll like this is based on name recognition, so Charlie Angus’ name is well known, Nathan as well, Alexandre; and it’s only normal,” he said.

MP Kennedy Stewart, chair of the NDP caucus, agreed it is early going, but said prospective candidates are looking for support.

“Nobody’s officially in the race. We hear people talking about it, we hear some phone calls around. I had a couple of phone calls myself. People are just probing,” Mr. Stewart (Burnaby South, B.C.) said.

Candidates have till July 3, 2017 to register;
As such I don't expect any major announcements till the new year.

The NDP is facing an interesting choice;
Trend further left and ultimately go back to being that 3rd / 4th party in Parliament or opt for someone more electable.

This is not a rhetorical question: who do they have that is 'electable'? I am not that familiar with the players, but it seems like the heirs apparent have dropped out, or are involved in using real power in Alberta.

The party has to not only get a leader, it has to get an issue that makes the NDP distinct enough to be separate from the Liberals. What would that be? Isn't the socialist project complete?

I wish them luck, because it's likely that Conservatives chances of beating the Liberals are greatly enhanced when the NDP are strong enough to stand apart from the Liberals as a better lcenter-left choice.

"I'm expecting, and I'm quite sure, we'll see several candidacies announced right after Christmas," Mulcair said in an interview with Don Martin, host of Power Play.

Two New Democrat MPs have stepped aside from their roles in the party to consider leadership bids. Charlie Angus, who represents Ontario's Timmins-James Bay riding, and Peter Julian, who represents New Westminster-Burnaby in British Columbia, are said to be thinking of running.

So far, there are no candidates in the NDP race, which is set to culminate next September. The Conservative Party will choose its new leader on May 27 and has 14 candidates with another two considering bids.

"Don't forget the party took a long approach to the date, so it's not until next fall. And one of the reasons, and I thought it was a smart one, [is] they wanted to make sure that members had the information on who the new Conservative leader was going to be," Mulcair said.

The outgoing NDP leader says he'll "probably" end 2017 as an MP, despite losing his role at the head of the party.

"I'm going to work it out with the new leader," Mulcair said.

"I haven't come to a definitive decision yet, but I've said all along I'm going to be very open to working with that person... I actually like this opposition stuff, of holding the government to account."

Topp says he won’t help the B.C. NDP, which opposes the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, in the provincial election coming next May.

No way, he says. He’ll stay right out of it. He vows to keep promoting Notley’s pipeline and climate change agenda to New Democrats everywhere.

“I’m always going to advocate for that,” he said in an interview. “Canada must get the best return for its resources. It’s crazy to allow your resources to be discounted.”

Topp said he’s heading back to Toronto for a fellowship at the Public Policy Forum, and looking forward to “putting my family back together again.” He makes another vow: he absolutely will not run for the leadership of the federal NDP, having tried that once before.

Topp, who got the key job shortly after the 2015 election, has been the most powerful chief of staff in Alberta’s recent history, charged with managing the transition to NDP government, finessing political challenges to Notley, and driving the massive policy shifts in environment, taxation and the electricity market.

“I believe I’ve achieved what the premier asked me to do,” he said.

Topp is replaced by John Heaney, another longtime B.C. activist who became Notley’s deputy minister for the policy co-ordination office — a rare elevation of a policy handler into the senior civil service. Heaney brings the same key credential as Topp, absolute and proven loyalty to Rachel Notley and her policies.

None of this signals a policy change – no deferral of the carbon tax, for instance – but it may presage a cabinet shuffle fairly soon.

Topp gets no severance pay, or even moving expenses.

He agreed to that when he took the $225,000-a-year job in 2015. It’s a big switch from the lavish payouts to previous PC chiefs of staff. Farouk Adatia, who did the job for former premier Alison Redford, got more than $300,000 after Redford quit.

In this major upheaval of key staffers, Anne McGrath, now Notley’s principal secretary, will move to Calgary to be the NDP’s first executive director of McDougall Centre.

“In sending her to McDougall to be executive director, the premier is sending a big message that she intends to strengthen the government’s focus in that part of the province,” Topp said.

“Given that the economic shock has hit Calgary the hardest, given all the issues we’re working on in southern Alberta, this is the right thing to do.”

It’s also a long overdue thing to do. Under the NDP, McDougall has never had senior staff with quick and easy links to the premier’s Edmonton operation.

McGrath, who has strong Alberta roots, once ran for the leadership of the provincial NDP. She’s been national director of the federal party and chief of staff to the late leader, Jack Layton.

Like Topp and Heaney, McGrath was a central figure in the victorious 2015 Alberta campaign.

They were all involved in the 2013 B.C. loss as well. Heaney is said to be among those who later convinced John Horgan to run for the provincial leadership.

“The people in our party who are hiding in the LEAP manifesto have an echo in the Alberta conservatives who are hiding in a form of conservatism most people are going to find pretty extreme,” he says.

Former city councillor Bob Hawkesworth will leave his community relations post at McDougall. Marcella Munro, in charge of stakeholder relations, stays in place.

The final and most surprising shift is the elevation of Jim Rutkowski, Finance Minister Joe Ceci’s chief of staff, to the demanding job of principal secretary to Notley.

An Edmontonian who went to Strathcona High School and the University of Alberta, and later worked for the B.C. NDP (who didn’t?!) Rutkowski has had a quick rise from adviser, to minister’s chief, and now to Notley’s office.

As for Topp himself, he’s aware that any partisan tinkering in the looming B.C. election would be awkward for Notley, who now watches a lot of her old friends in the coastal NDP harden their opposition to pipeline construction.

The people now promoted “all have relationships with the B.C. NDP — so do I,” Topp says. “We’re all New Democrats, but on (pipelines), on this issue, the premier of Alberta has agreed to disagree.”

He adds that New Democrats everywhere are still getting used to the idea that Alberta is now “part of the family,” and its resource and pipeline issues must be taken seriously.

Is it just me, or does the air seem to have gone out of the NDP balloon?

If the NDP went back to Ed Broadbent days, a lot of people would welcome it. In those days, they seemed to play a useful role. They waxed and waned inversely with Liberal support and satisfied themselves with the sanctity of their positions, floating just slightly above the coarse mediocrity of common politicians.

But they got all fullashit and ambitious. Audrey took them to their natural base. Alexa did better, and at least has some feminine charm, but it was clear that the party was stuck where it was. Until Mr. Wonderkins came along, Jack Layton. "Party for sale or rent ..." he sang, to the strains of a Roger Miller tune. And it had the virtue of honesty.

And then, Mulcair, the prosecutor, the specialist in snide innuendo, capitalising on rumour and suspicion, and all the dark side of human nature. A truly ugly person, just the opposite of sunny old Jack. In the process, they threw some of rheir core constituencies overboard. Who wants to do all the work? ... and with what prospect of success? And he should speak French ... oh, damn!

When they are putting an old warhorse like Charlie Angus to work, it means the party has wasted its youthful intellectuals. They are just keeping the organizational boat afloat until another 'energizer bunny' arrives.

The NDP is just an opportunistic third party from now on. It has no moral stature. It's just a relic, a tool for big players with money. People don't want their version of day-care. It isn't just about benefits anymore. In a rational world, the NDP would go to the places where large pachyderms go to die and lie down to await the end.

Is it just me, or does the air seem to have gone out of the NDP balloon?

If the NDP went back to Ed Broadbent days, a lot of people would welcome it. In those days, they seemed to play a useful role. They waxed and waned inversely with Liberal support and satisfied themselves with the sanctity of their positions, floating just slightly above the coarse mediocrity of common politicians.

But they got all fullashit and ambitious. Audrey took them to their natural base. Alexa did better, and at least has some feminine charm, but it was clear that the party was stuck where it was. Until Mr. Wonderkins came along, Jack Layton. "Party for sale or rent ..." he sang, to the strains of a Roger Miller tune. And it had the virtue of honesty.

And then, Mulcair, the prosecutor, the specialist in snide innuendo, capitalising on rumour and suspicion, and all the dark side of human nature. A truly ugly person, just the opposite of sunny old Jack. In the process, they threw some of rheir core constituencies overboard. Who wants to do all the work? ... and with what prospect of success? And he should speak French ... oh, damn!

When they are putting an old warhorse like Charlie Angus to work, it means the party has wasted its youthful intellectuals. They are just keeping the organizational boat afloat until another 'energizer bunny' arrives.

The NDP is just an opportunistic third party from now on. It has no moral stature. It's just a relic, a tool for big players with money. People don't want their version of day-care. It isn't just about benefits anymore. In a rational world, the NDP would go to the places where large pachyderms go to die and lie down to await the end.

Or maybe just wade into the tar pit. Wouldn't that be nice!

the NDP does really seem to be out of momentum , other than negative momentum . not just federally but provincially as well , mla's are resigning there seats ( one in Manitoba and Nova Scotia , with no real reasons for doing so ) and provincial parties are stuck in 3rd place with little momentum .

but think when they start an actual leadership race and find a new leader , things will get better for them , politics is often an up and down cycle and there in the downward part of it rate now

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